The main streets and intersections around north Jackson have never looked so good, despite just about zero help from the city, county or state.
Northsider Locke Ward is constantly sending me photos of this or that street that his group has edged, mowed, power washed or whatever. It’s nothing short of amazing. So amazing the Mississippi House of Representatives passed a resolution praising him.
And it’s not just Ward and his crew. The Greater Belhaven Foundation, the LeFleur East Business Improvement District and other private efforts have helped.
The LeFleur East Business Improvement District is also pitching in. They hired Southern Horticulture and began work along the I-55 east frontage road at Eastover Drive and will continue north to Canton Mart Road.
District chairman Warren Speed said the work also includes the I-55 west frontage road from Eastover Drive to Canton Mart Road and even along the interstate in those areas.
Greater Belhaven residents took matters into their own hands by removing mud, leaves and debris from curbs during a cleanup day, In the process, they uncovered numerous storm drains hidden by overgrowth, she said.
Volunteers also tidied up overgrown medians, cleaned Laurel Street Park, Belhaven Art Park and Belhaven Heights Park and picked up trash off I-55 where the exits to Belhaven area are and along the Museum Trail and the mountain biking trail.
Ward got tired of seeing trash and overgrown grass on the I-55 frontage road. Local government had dropped the ball on basic maintenance. Trash wasn’t being cleaned up. Edging and mowing wasn’t being done. So Ward started raising money and hired a local landscaping firm to do what the City of Jackson or Hinds County (or even MDOT) should have been doing all along.
As word got out through social media (and the Northside Sun’s promotion as well), money started rolling in, nearly nine thousand dollars’ worth. The frontage roads and many other streets on the Northside are looking better than they have in years. And all for a fraction of the cost of what the local government would have spent. Casey Bridge's company Casey Can Home Services is doing the work.
Ward now has a Go Fund Me page called Clean Up Jackson. We urge Northsiders to contribute whatever they can. You can also Venmo money to @Locke-ward.
I’m not sure which is more amazing: the utter failure of local and state governments to do something as basic as keeping our streets clean, or the fact that Northsiders have taken matters into their own hands and done a job far better than the government ever did.
Locke’s effort was facilitated by the amazing advances in communications and social media. Technology enabled him to get the word out, motivate donors and have reliable and easy means to transfer donations. I’m not sure this could have been done twenty years ago.
This type of progress is encouraging. What’s not encouraging is the breakdown in our local and state government’s ability to clean up the streets of its taxpayers.
Mississippi Department of Transportation director Brad White addressed this issue at a press conference earlier this year, blaming it on unstable and insufficient funding mechanisms for MDOT. Basically, trash and landscaping get pushed to the side when there’s not enough money to properly maintain the asphalt.
MDOT still relies on a gas tax that hasn’t been raised in decades despite significant inflationary rises in the cost of asphalt, labor, machinery and everything else associated with road maintenance.
As for the city, if it can’t get its act together enough to produce safe drinking water, it’s not surprising the streets don’t get edged or the trash picked up.
People hate taxes and our elected leaders have to do what the people want or lose. So the public has nobody to blame but themselves. Low taxes have a downside: Dirty, ugly streets.
It’s depressing driving around and seeing trash everywhere, grass growing all over the curbs, weeds out of control on medians. It’s very much a quality of life issue. It gives you this vague sense of things not being right.
I have long noticed that the street curbs alongside private businesses and churches are neatly manicured while the government sections are unkempt and overgrown. People blame the government and want to give it less in taxes but maybe the problem is stingy taxpayers.
But for right now, the grass is cut, the curbs edged, bridged power washed, and the trash picked up. All from private donations..
Ironically, this is kind of an ultimate form of progressive taxation. People with enough money to donate are paying for these cleaner streets while people with less money receive the benefit with no cost. I have no doubt that private effort is several times more efficient.
Oh well. There are a lot of ways to skin a cat. Whatever works. In the meantime, I’m thoroughly enjoying living in a more neatly kept city. Thank you Locke and all the others.
